PSAP is an acronym for Public Safety Answering Point, an agency in the United States, typically county or city controlled, responsible for answering 911 calls for emergency assistance from police, fire, and ambulance services. There are roughly 6,100 primary and secondary PSAPs in the United States. Each PSAP generally covers a particular geographic area or areas and dispatches police, fire, and ambulance services based on the nature of incoming calls.
Traditionally, with a POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) line, a consumer would dial 911 to be connected directly to the PSAP in the event of an emergency. Using Caller ID, the PSAP could determine the location of the caller and dispatch emergency services (Fire, Ambulance, Police, and the like) to the correct location. However, as communications systems diversify and become more complex, difficulties arise when connecting a consumer to the appropriate PSAP. For example, when calling 911 on a cell phone, one might be connected with a 911 service center for another county or jurisdiction, if the cell tower the caller is communicating with is located in another jurisdiction (i.e., across a river, for example).
In addition, for the cellular user, if they are calling about an alarm in their home while they are not at home, their user's phone call might be routed to the wrong 911 call center and as a result, delay or prevent proper dispatching of emergency services.
Other communications systems have also become available which are supplementing and supplanting traditional POTS lines. Home alarm systems traditionally uses a POTS line with a DTMF (Dual Tone Multiple Frequency) signal to dial out to an alarm company, and report an alarm condition. However, these alarm systems may now require that the alarm company determine the nature of the emergency before calling the PSAP. False alarms have become so rampant that many jurisdictions are fining customers and/or alarm monitoring companies for false alarms. As a result, alarm-monitoring companies usually try to call the consumer to determine if a real emergency or a false alarm has taken place. This delay in verifying alarms can result in a fire burning out of control before fire equipment arrives, or an injured person dying before an ambulance arrives.
Some a Prior Art alarm systems allow a customer to connect to a Police or other emergency response number that the customer may specify. This connection may be made when the alarm monitoring system notifies the customer that an alarm has gone off. Alternatively, the alarm panel may be provided with a “panic” 911 feature or the like. When such features are activated, however, it is important that the correct PSAP center and number be called for rapid response.
Thus, it remains a requirement in the art to provide a method and apparatus whereby a consumer can be directly connected to the local PSAP or 911 call-center, regardless of where the customer is located and calling from.